The Silent Majority

Don’t talk to me
of the conscience
of the silent majority

Silence isn’t a virtue
silence is complicity
silence is acquiescence
silence is
the loveless embrace
of oppression

Silence is not
mourning the blood
of the innocents
silence is a license given
to the oppressors to spill more
in your name

Revolution is never silent
guilt and shame is
surrender is
revolution is loud and raucous
unashamed and proud
not hiding in the shadows

I’ve had enough
of that silence
I’ve seen all that it hides
the mass hate
the cowardice mistaken as
civility, or open-mindedness

I’ve seen the celebrations
of the silent
ugly to the core
I’ve seen the biases
the bigotry
the supremacy
hidden behind the thin veneer of silence

I’ve seen the ugly soul of silence
the slithering snakepit
I’ve heard the blood-curdling hiss
of the silent oppressive majority

Don’t talk to me
of the conscience
of the silent majority
there is none.